Big South Announces 2026 Women's Golf Annual Award Winners
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Charleston Southern’s
Katie Stephens was voted the 2026 Big South Women’s Golfer of the Year, while High Point’s
Makayla Grubb was voted Freshman of the Year by the league’s head coaches and announced this past Tuesday afternoon as part of the Women’s Golf Championship Awards Ceremony. Longwood’s
Madison Lehr was selected the Newcomer of the Year, and HPU head coach
Lyndsey Hunnell was voted Coach of the Year by the panel. Radford junior
Macy Johnson was voted Women’s Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the Big South’s athletic communicators.
Stephens (Middlesbrough, England) entered the Big South Championship with a league-high three individual victories this season, helping lead the Buccaneers to two team titles, tied for most in the conference. She recorded six Top 10 finishes during the regular season, third-most in the Big South, and ranked fourth in scoring average (73.08). The senior was named Big South Golfer of the Week following each of her three medalist performances, which came at the Fripp Island Intercollegiate, Battle at the Beach, and Golfweek/Stifel Spring Challenge, and was the only golfer in the league to win multiple individual titles. Ranked No. 250 nationally, Stephens becomes Charleston Southern’s first Golfer of the Year since Olivia Jordan-Higgins in 2009.
Grubb (Stafford, Va.) is the fourth High Point golfer to earn Freshman of the Year honors and the third consecutive Panther to receive the award. She entered the postseason atop the conference’s stroke average leaderboard at 72.59 and tied for third in Top 10 finishes with six. Ranked No. 211 nationally, she placed second at the Big South Championship with a 217, then delivered an 8&7 victory in the Championship Match to help lead HPU to its first Big South title in program history. Grubb’s 5-under performance at the Lady Paladin Invitational tied for the second-lowest 54-hole score in the conference this season, while her round of 67 at the Golfweek Fall Challenge also tied for the second-lowest round in the league this year.
Hunnel earns her third Big South Coach of the Year honor in four seasons and her second straight. She guided the Panthers to two regular-season victories in 2025-26 — the Rivertown Intercollegiate and Daniel Island Invitational — and the program’s first Big South Championship title, highlighted by a 15-shot win in Stroke Play, also a program first. High Point finished in the Top 4 in all 10 events and ranked No. 62 nationally, the highest among Big South teams, with four Panthers sitting among the league’s Top 7 in stroke average entering the conference championship. Hunnel also coached Makayla Grubb to Freshman of the Year honors, along with five All-Conference selections.
Lehr is the third recipient of the Big South Women’s Golf Newcomer of the Year award, introduced in 2024 to recognize the top non-freshman transfer competing in the league for the first time. In her debut season with the Lancers, Lehr (Mechanicsville, Va.) finished third at the Big South Championship with a 218 to earn All-Championship Team honors. She ranked 10th in the conference with a 75.33 stroke average and recorded five Top 10 finishes, including the conference championship. A one-time Big South Golfer of the Week selection in 2025-26, Lehr is ranked No. 494 nationally.
Johnson becomes Radford’s first back-to-back Scholar-Athlete of the Year in program history and the program’s fifth overall. A junior, she holds a 4.00 GPA while majoring in Economics and completing a minor in accounting, and is on track to graduate early this spring before pursuing her MBA next year. The Salem, Va. native also serves as President of Beta Gamma Sigma, which recognizes the top 10 percent of undergraduate business students nationally. Johnson’s top finish this season came at the Elon Invitational, where she tied for 16th and posted her lowest round of the year with a 71.
Also announced this past Tuesday afternoon were the Big South Women’s Golf All-Conference and All-Freshman teams, which are listed below. Both squads are based on performance during the regular-season and conference championship.
2026 Big South Conference Women’s Golf Award Winners
All-Conference Team
First-Team
Katie Stephens, Charleston Southern
Makayla Grubb, High Point
Caroline Patterson, UNC Asheville
Eugenie Varet, Charleston Southern
Anna Howerton, High Point
Second-Team
Eva Lye, High Point
Breanna Hoese, UNC Asheville
Constança Mendonça, Winthrop
Mckenzie Weddle, Radford
Avery Nordman, Longwood
Honorable Mention
Madison Lehr, Longwood
Ella Perna, High Point
Anaïs Arafi, High Point
Abigail Sheldon, Longwood
Shea Smith, Radford
All-Freshman Team
Makayla Grubb, High Point
Eva Lye, High Point
Avery Nordman, Longwood
Alayna Friedt, Winthrop
Elle Overly, Gardner-Webb
All-Academic Team
Katie Stephens, Charleston Southern
Eva Bulger, Gardner-Webb
Anaïs Arafi, High Point
Chiara Wippert, Longwood
Taylor Reaves, Presbyterian
Macy Johnson, Radford
Lauren Madson, UNC Asheville
Madison Dixon, USC Upstate
Constança Mendonça, Winthrop
Golfer of the Year
Katie Stephens, Charleston Southern
Freshman of the Year
Makayla Grubb, High Point
Newcomer of the Year
Madison Lehr, Longwood
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Macy Johnson, Radford
All-Championship Team (Top 5 finishers plus ties)
Caroline Patterson, UNC Asheville (Medalist)
Makayla Grubb, High Point
Constança Mendonça, Winthrop
Madison Lehr, Longwood
Eva Lye, High Point
Eugenie Varet, Charleston Southern